WMC with HDHomerun Prime won't work on SOME channels

Post Reply
McGary

Posts: 173
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:03 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

WMC with HDHomerun Prime won't work on SOME channels

#1

Post by McGary » Fri Jun 17, 2022 6:07 am

Trying to help a friend with a VERY weird problem.

WMC was working fine until a year or so ago, but suddenly developed a very strange issue that I could not help him resolve remotely. I'm now visiting him for a couple days, and thought I'd see if I could get any better results in person. No joy so far, so thought I'd see if anyone's encounted this and found a solution.
The issue: On SOME, but not all, channels, the following message is displayed if he attempts to access the channel:

Service is unavailable
There is currently no TV signal detected for this channel. The channel may be temporarily off the air. Try again later.

If you schedule a recording for a later time, you'll get a "There was no TV signal on Channel xx" message and it won't record.

The HDHomeRun Primes are working fine -- I can record 6 channels at once (from those that are working) with no issue (he has 2 HD HomeRun Primes). But
many channels simply won't play and show the message I just noted. Note that ALL of them play perfectly in the HDHomeRun program (on the same PC, and of course using the same tuners). And the channel scan in Media Center setup finds all of the channels, and displays them in the guide (using EPG123 for guide info).

I found a few posts about this issue that recommend reinstalling WMC (done); re-scanning the channels (done); confirming that the Media Center Receiver Service is allowed through the firewall (done -- tried toggling this off/on, etc. several ways); disabling the extenders (done); etc.

Found an earlier thread here that talked about editing the channel numbers, but the numbers are all correct and match what's shown in the HDHomerun app for the same channels -- am I missing something here? Also found references that indicate this can be a firewall issue -- but nothing changes if the firewall is completely disabled.

Note: I also restored an image from 2 years ago when we set this up and it was working perfectly -- I thought for sure this would resolve it, but it has the same problem !!

Any ideas ???

stuartm

Posts: 721
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 8:05 pm
Location: Longmont, CO

HTPC Specs: Show details

#2

Post by stuartm » Fri Jun 17, 2022 6:35 am

Some providers are starting to supply some channels (often their newer additions) only via IPTV. The prime is not able to tune in IPTV channels. Try to determine if the missing channels are IPTV. (The provider may know but the CS reps are often pretty clueless).

byronomo

Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:19 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#3

Post by byronomo » Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:33 pm

McGary wrote: Fri Jun 17, 2022 6:07 am Trying to help a friend with a VERY weird problem.

WMC was working fine until a year or so ago, but suddenly developed a very strange issue that I could not help him resolve remotely. I'm now visiting him for a couple days, and thought I'd see if I could get any better results in person. No joy so far, so thought I'd see if anyone's encounted this and found a solution.
The issue: On SOME, but not all, channels, the following message is displayed if he attempts to access the channel:

Service is unavailable
There is currently no TV signal detected for this channel. The channel may be temporarily off the air. Try again later.

If you schedule a recording for a later time, you'll get a "There was no TV signal on Channel xx" message and it won't record.

The HDHomeRun Primes are working fine -- I can record 6 channels at once (from those that are working) with no issue (he has 2 HD HomeRun Primes). But
many channels simply won't play and show the message I just noted. Note that ALL of them play perfectly in the HDHomeRun program (on the same PC, and of course using the same tuners). And the channel scan in Media Center setup finds all of the channels, and displays them in the guide (using EPG123 for guide info).

I found a few posts about this issue that recommend reinstalling WMC (done); re-scanning the channels (done); confirming that the Media Center Receiver Service is allowed through the firewall (done -- tried toggling this off/on, etc. several ways); disabling the extenders (done); etc.

Found an earlier thread here that talked about editing the channel numbers, but the numbers are all correct and match what's shown in the HDHomerun app for the same channels -- am I missing something here? Also found references that indicate this can be a firewall issue -- but nothing changes if the firewall is completely disabled.

Note: I also restored an image from 2 years ago when we set this up and it was working perfectly -- I thought for sure this would resolve it, but it has the same problem !!

Any ideas ???
I'm kind of grasping at straws here since the channels are tuning properly in the HDHomerun Application on the same PC. I have a similar setup and thought I'd just mention a few things that I would try if I were in that situation:
(in no particular order)
  • Reinstall PlayReady
  • Make sure that you have increased the WMC tuner limit to allow for 6 or more tuners
  • If all 6 tuners are added, go to one of the problem channels using edit channel and hover over each tuner in turn to see if any of them end up tuning
  • If using tuning adapters, reboot them
  • Lastly, as I recall, I think there is a way of monitoring what the HDHR Prime Units are doing at any given moment using the HDHR software. I seem to recall that it gives some data on the stream and/or any errors encountered. You might try looking at those details when trying to tune to one of the problem channels from WMC.
Sounds like a frustrating situation. I hope someone is able to be more helpful and give you a specific and accurate solution.

McGary

Posts: 173
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:03 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#4

Post by McGary » Fri Jun 17, 2022 2:12 pm

Appreciate the thoughts, but none of these help ...

=> Can't be IPTV, since the HDHomerun app plays all of the channels perfectly.
=> I've tried reinstalling Playready.
=> The tuner limit was increased and is working fine, since I can record 6 channels at once with no issue as long as they're channels that work.
=> No tuning adapters on his system
=> I've looked at the logon pages for the HDHomeruns and the status info all indicate they're working just fine.

What really blows my mind is that restoring the original image from when we set it all up (and everything was working perfectly) has the same problem. This almost certainly indicates something external had to have changed -- but nothing has ... he hasn't moved; hasn't changed providers; hasn't changed cable cards; etc. And the other strange part of this is that some channels work perfectly, and others all have this problem.

I'm only here until tomorrow, but I sure thought that with a couple days of actually being here I'd figure out a resolution. Just for grins, I'm going to completely reinstall Win7 on a new SSD today and see if this somehow changes things -- but I'm not optimistic, since restoring the original image is effectly the same thing and didn't work.

Any other thoughts r.e. something I might not have thought of would be appreciated.

byronomo

Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:19 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#5

Post by byronomo » Fri Jun 17, 2022 3:47 pm

McGary wrote: Fri Jun 17, 2022 2:12 pm
=> I've looked at the logon pages for the HDHomeruns and the status info all indicate they're working just fine.
https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/prime:diagnostics

Got it. Are you able to see ANY differences whatsoever in the information reported by the status screens (examples in the link above) when the tuner is SUCCESSFULLY showing content (via the HDHR App) versus when attempting to tune to the SAME channel via WMC?

Lastly, again grasping at straws, there's no HDMI splitting going on between the PC and the display is there?

McGary

Posts: 173
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:03 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#6

Post by McGary » Fri Jun 17, 2022 8:49 pm

No difference at all with the tuner status pages. If you select a channel via HDHomerun the tuner shows that channel is tuned and HDHomerun displays it perfectly.

If you select it with Media Center, the HDHomerun shows a tuner in use; and the status channel shows the correct channel; but the channel does not display in Media center.

I did a full install of W7 today and clean install Media Center -- and this also DID NOT WORK -- has the same issue. I even tried using a different router, etc. I'm completely perplexed with this, and basically have given up. One of the strangest issues I've even seen in over 50 years of being a computer geek!!

stuartm

Posts: 721
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 8:05 pm
Location: Longmont, CO

HTPC Specs: Show details

#7

Post by stuartm » Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:15 am

Maybe try asking over in the HDHomerun support forums. They may be able to provide some insight. They are very experienced with WMC and their tuners.

McGary

Posts: 173
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:03 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#8

Post by McGary » Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:52 am

Not a bad idea to see if those focused on the HDHomeRun might have some insight. It's not at all clear there's anything wrong with the HDHomeRuns, but it's equally not clear this is a WMC issue. In any event, I 'll post a link to this thread in the HDHomeRun forum along with a brief description.

My friend has spent a LOT of time with the Silicon Dust folks (who haven't got a clue about why this is behaving this way); with his local cable provider (in case it's somehow related to the cable cards); and with Microsoft (who basically simply said WMC is obsolete).

I was REALLY surprised that restoring an image from 2 years ago when everything was first installed and was working perfectly didn't resolve this. That tends to say it has to be something "external" -- but the HDHomeRuns are clearly working perfectly, as you can tune any channel in the HDHomeRun software and it works perfectly; and if you click on a channel in WMC a tuner lights up on the HDHomeRun, and a check of the status page for the HDHomeRun shows a tuner in use tuned to the appropriate channel.

Space

Posts: 2838
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:44 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#9

Post by Space » Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:57 am

See if the encoding is MPEG3 or something else? This is on the last page of the 411 (i)nfo page.

Post Reply